Helicopter Parents

cynthetiq, you sound a little stopped up.

 

What's worse is the damn lawnmower parents. I want to throttle each and every one of them. Twice.

 

Your parents must be related to mine. My parent didn't go to my HS or university graduations. I recently had a rather tense conversation with my mother who swore both her and my dad went to my HS graduation. When I asked what colors the cap and gowns were she stated "red and black" with authority. I showed her a couple pictures on my laptop of my then girlfriend and I standing outside the school in our caps and gowns which were green and yellow. She thought about it a minute and said "oh, that's right your bother's were red and black." She pointed out that they had a trip to San Fransisco planned and for that reason they couldn't make it to my graduation. I didn't say anything but thought "when my daughter graduated anything I made sure I didn't have travel plans." She also pointed out I'd told her I didn't even go to my university ceremony, which is true. I was 27 and working two jobs- one full time and one part time. Spending a day waiting for some guy I didn't know hand me a blank piece of paper was low on my to do list. But since she didn't even know I'd graduated until nearly a year after the fact I doubt had I gone she or my father would have been there. In the past few years she's often been asking me "why don't we have a closer relationship?" It's a mystery.

 

It is a mystery!
Baraka_Guru 's parents, yours and mine all seem to have similar MO's in re: education.
When I read his post I thought maybe it was a Canadian thing, but I guess not.

My mom was big on 'getting an education', despite not taking any interest in what I did in grade and high school, unless I wasn't doing it to her standards (I went to shitty central CT schools and I was bored out of my mind, content to be a B-C student).
The thing that sticks in my craw to this day is: I birthed a son at age 23 in California, one of her favourite places to fly from the east coast to vacation. Since she did not like my first husband, however, she refused to come out after I had the baby (by surprise C-section). That hurt. I guess that would be another category of 'doting grandparent', which, until I left the jerk and stayed with her for a year, she only did when I brought the baby back east to see her.
I went (back) to college at age 25 and she flew out for both my graduations. So proud.

 

At least they care....

 

A couple of years ago, my wife's brother and his wife (two NOTORIOUS helicopter parents of our college-aged niece) showed up at our house and demanded to sit down with us and straighten out a few things. According to them, my wife had been unnecessarily mean to their daughter recently, and they wanted to get to the bottom of it in a whole face-to-face confrontation.

The problem? Their daughter (our niece) was staying overnight in a home owned by my wife, and called us to say that the smoke alarm was "messed up" because it wouldn't stop beeping. My wife told her to replace the battery, and she couldn't do it. She wanted us to come do it for her, and we refused. So, she took down the alarm, took out the battery, and left it like that for the entire time she stayed (with NO smoke alarm).

The girl is an idiot, but you can't blame a dog for being a dog. Her parents are the ones who need to be slapped.

 

To be fair I have removed engines from cars and then couldn't figure out how to get them back in once I completed the repairs. A Pontiac Fiero mid engine POS was the worst I can remember. Engine slid right out. Heads, pistons and rings were removed and repaired and/or replaced within one afternoon. Went to return the engine and regardless of the angle we tried it just wouldn't seem to fit. Took longer to get the engine replaced then the entire rebuild. Never agian.

 

Sure, why not? Remove and replace. Should be simple.

 

"That's what she said?" Seriously? You get that from your 1980's sitcoms "Wheel O'catch Phrases?" If you spin it twice and get the same catch phrase do you get a free chance to pitch a spin off series to a group of TV executive douche bags on coke?

 

Wh..what?